Monday, August 31, 2015

More from the Mary Kay City Modern Collection for Fall 2015... I've already talked about how much I enjoy the Mary Kay Nail Lacquers ($10 each, reviewed here and here) and all three of the City Modern Collection colours are polishes that I could wear all day every day.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Back in early August, I met Kat Von D (!!!) and I attended a morning presentation with Erik Soto, Kat Von D's personal makeup artist and Global Makeup Artist for Kat Von D Beauty. At the session, he shared two looks featuring the Kat Von D Fall 2015 Collection (see his looks and an event recap here). So, I thought I'd recreate them!

/// LOOK #1 - The Natural Pin-up

The focus of this look is the versatility of the Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Mother. It looks kind of meh in the tube but on the face it is a mauve-pink neutral yet kind of bold dream come true. I used it as both lipstick and blush in this look.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Ah, Mary Kay eyeshadows. What a sight to behold. Pretty in the pan and so buttery, so shimmery, so glittery and so smooth. An eyeshadow-gasm if there was ever such a thing. The Mary Kay City Modern Eye Color Palettes in Metro Modern and City Sophisticate ($26 each) are available as of August 16th.

City Sophisticate, Metro Modern

I'm a fan of the Mary Kay eye shadow formulations. They're very pigmented and smooth. There's some fall out because the shades are so finely milled but if you do your eyeshadow before foundation you should be a-ok. In terms of the colours in the palettes...

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Not too long ago, I came across a review of a product called Baby Foot – a deep exfoliating foot peel from Japan that literally makes your skin peel off (and for some people even their callouses). It’s totally cringe-worthy yet very, very intriguing.

Baby foot retails for $25 on Nail Polish Canada (high five for free shipping). It’s a little beyond what I’m willing to spend for a foot product so I put off trying Baby Foot. Months later, I came across the Skin Republic Foot Peel ($16) at Shoppers Drug Mart. At that time, it was in the depths of summer and my feet were kind of dry and gross, so I decided to pick up a couple packs (one for me and one for the boyfriend). *scroll to the bottom for nasty photos of feet, along with hairy legs and plastic bags*

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Contouring and highlighting kits are STILL a thing. With the Estee Lauder New Dimension Shape + Sculpt Face Kit ($50), Estee Lauder says "now every angle becomes your best angle". It's a nice thought, maybe a bit of a stretch but accentuating the angles of my very round face with makeup never hurt.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Kat Von D is killing it with the beauty products. 16 (!!!) new Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks ($24 each) and 9 new shades of the Studded Kiss Lipsticks ($25 each).

First and foremost, we need to take a moment for the packaging. If the packaging of your makeup said something about you, then own anything from Kat Von D Beauty and you would be considered COOL AF or BAMF or both.

Monday, August 24, 2015

There are 15 new polishes in the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure ($9.50 each) Line-Up and I'm obsessed with the "this polish means business" names. Damsel in Success. YES. Here's a look at 15 of the 6.

The Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure is meant to be an all-in-one bottle routine. In addition to being a nail polish colour the Complete Salon Manicure is also a base coat, strengthener, growth treatment, and top coat with chip-resistance and gel shine. I have found previous shades of the Complete Salon Manicure to be inconsistent when it comes to chip resistance - some last 2 days before chipping and others last 4 days. These Fall releases are all around 4+ days. The shine is there but it's not quite as gel-like as the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel. My nails don't feel any stronger but the polish doesn't stain or peel my nails which is a plus. AND I love the round shape of the brush. One or two swipes covers my entire nail in polish. Overall, a great formula if you're looking to care for the health of your nails plus add a bit of colour.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Rainbow eyeshadows are not something you see every day, especially when they're metallic. The 11 intense new Kat Von D Metal Crush Eyeshadows ($25 each) are striking in colour and pigmentation and surprisingly long-wearing and fallout free.

Friday, August 21, 2015

I’ve never been one for fad diets, juice cleanses, etc. I’m not going to give up my normal (semi-healthy) eating habits to rid my body of toxins. That’s where the Purgo Teatox System comes along. It’s a program that claims to boost metabolism, reduce bloating and cleanse the body. I tried the Purgo Tea 14-day Teatox ($29.99), a program targeted at quick results. All it takes is a cup of the Morning Detox Tea every day and a cup of the Evening Cleanse Tea every other day for 14 days. Easy, right?

Morning Detox Tea

Claims >> boosts metabolism to help burn calories and sustain energy throughout the day

Purgo Tea says that they’ve worked
with a Chinese Herbalist to develop high quality teas that work and taste good.
The teas are gluten free with no artificial additives and the ingredients come
from a certified organic tea grower. The Morning Cleanse Tea had a bitter/sour dandelion taste that I was not a fan of. It didn't help that you're meant to drink it daily. The Evening Cleanse was more to my preferences - I found the Oolong and Chamomile to be relaxing before bedtime.

The effects? The Morning Tea definitely had some sort of caffeine in it - so it prevented me from taking my 8AM, 30 minute nap on the train ride to work. I felt like the first day after using the Evening Tea I was eliminating (aka pooping) more frequently. There wasn't any reduction of bloating, sustained energy, or weight loss that I noticed throughout my teatox. Subsequent to the teatox, the boost of energy dissipated.

Going in, my expectation wasn't to lose weight but the teas did give me a kick of energy in the morning for the time I was drinking them. I have difficulty sticking to a plan and one of Purgo Tea's "steps for success" was to eat nutritious foods. I was 100% a failure at this because during the two weeks I chose, I (1) went to London, ON for Ribfest and ate lots of unhealthy things and (2) went to Montreal to eat all the poutine and smoked meat sandwiches and bagels. So, yeah. Overall, it was an interesting experience though I'll just stick to drinking the occasional caffeinated tea when I need a boost of energy.

They say that a nude lipstick is timeless. For me, nude lipsticks are more like an endless search for the right shade. Luckily, Rimmel has launched a line of four new shades of the Lasting Finish Lipstick through the Nude Collection by Kate Moss plus a lip conditioning balm ($7.99 each). I tried the three darkest shades (#42, #43 & #45).

Rimmel says that the Lasting Finish Lipsticks are soft, creamy, high intensity and last up to 8 hours.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation of the Kat Von D Fall 2015 collection featuring Erik Soto, Kat Von D's Global Makeup Artist. Erik showcased some of the new releases through two makeup looks and discussed some of his favourite tips and tricks using the products from the line. Near the end of the presentation, Kat Von D casually popped in. Julie and I freaked out. Jaws dropped. Selfies were taken. Basically, the best surprise ever.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Put simply, the Clarisonic Smart Profile is like a versatile electric toothbrush for your face, body and feet. It's one device that does a LOT of things.

Clarisonic says that the Smart Profile is the next
generation of sonic cleansing devices. It’s a cutting-edge device that
Clarisonic describes in three words – Smarter,
Easier and More Powerful. According
to a Clarisonic clinical study, the Smart Profile was shown to remove makeup
11X better than hands and remove 30X more skin-damaging pollution than manual
cleansing.

The only face brush that I’ve tried that could come
remotely close to the technology Clarisonic is the Olay Fresh Effects Va-Va-Vivid! Powered Contour Cleansing System,
which by the way is a battery-powered brush that retails for $10 and only a
hair better than manual fingertip cleansing. The Clarisonic Smart Profile
($299) was a massive upgrade for me. I’ve been testing it out since mid-June.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Back to school season is upon us! I, for one, am not particularly excited about going back to school. Why can't the summer last forever? Luckily, there's back to school shopping (cute notebooks, sticky notes, stationary, and fresh new beauty products) to spice things up.

In collaboration with Walmart and P&G Beauty, I'm giving away a prize pack valued at $100 to get you ready for back to school.

Monday, August 17, 2015

It's not often that I trust a stranger with my hair. Especially when I'm looking to cut off 5 inches.

The last time I got my hair cut was last year, which was at the same $10 place called Hair CiCi at Ellesmere and Pharmacy in Scarborough perviously mentioned two years ago here. While CiCi's (along with other Chinese salons) was cheap, I found that the hairdressers always cut my hair shorter than what I had asked for and I was never quite happy with the layering, which was always too thinning...hence why I let my hair grow out like a lion's mane.

Lately, I had been feeling like my hair was taking over my body. So, at the recommendation of Jenn of A Beautiful Zen (many thanks!!), I headed over to Maya Hair Salon in Toronto (at 635 Bloor Street West in Koreatown).

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Deeper lip colours get me PUMPED for the cooler weather. The Mary Kay City Modern Collection boasts elegant, effortless colour options and the Mary Kay City Modern Collection Velvet Lip Cremes ($18 each, available August 16th) are just that.

Friday, August 14, 2015

After participating in the OMD3 Nail Art Challenge, I've become extremely lazy with my nails. It's been solid colours only for the past two weeks. I finally picked up a striping tool and decided to spice up the a summer appropriate nail colour (NYC New York Color In A Minute Quick Dry Polish in 273 Penn Station Park) with a few edgy black lines.

At an event last month, Melissa Forrest (Spokesperson/Nail Artist for Shoppers Drug Mart) let me in on a secret. She told me that black accents add a little interest and edge to what might be a too girly (bright/neon) or too dainty (pastel) nail colour. So I thought I'd apply that reasoning to 273 Penn Station Park. It's a gorgeous shade on it's own but a few lines make me feel like my nails are cool.

If you recall, a few months back I reviewed the Jealous Body Coconut + Coffee Scrub (initially $17.95, now $18.95 per 200g/7oz.). Now Jealous Body has launched four new variations of their coffee scrubs in addition to the Coconut + Coffee. All five of the scrubs contain the same base of coffee grounds to stimulate blood flow, reduce cellulite/eczema/stretch marks/age spots/acne, brown sugar and sea salt to exfoliate, and Vitamin A,C,E & D to protect and repair skin.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

MAKE UP FOR EVER just launched two new HD foundations –
the Ultra HD Liquid Foundation ($50)
and the Ultra HD Stick Foundation
($50).

I never tried the now
discontinued MAKE UP FOR EVER HD Foundation (*slaps self on wrist*,
shameful, right?) because I know for a fact that the Matt Velvet Plus formula
is better suited to my very oily t-zone. But when someone hands you the latest
and greatest in foundation innovations, you try them! Right?

MAKE UP FOR EVER says that the new Ultra HD Foundation is
completely undetectable (no-makeup-makeup) to 4K HD photo/video technologies and even the naked eye. At a MAKE UP
FOR EVER event last month, I had the pleasure of watching an MUA do makeup
under an HD camera and the model’s makeup did truly look undetectable. The
technology in the foundation is known as a 4K
Complex, which uses (1) Amino Acid Coated Pigments to blur flaws, and
provide invisible coverage (2) Hyaluronic Spheres for comfortable, hydrating
wear (3) Sericite, a finely grained mica that refracts light to create a
luminous effect to copy the vibrancy of natural skin.

Before this, I had only tried the Reversa Micellar Water (which is just as great as Bioderma Sensibio H20 but cheaper). In general, Reversa strikes me as a no-nonsense, ingredient-based skincare range. Reversa is owned by Dermtek Pharmaceuticals, a Canadian manufacturing company committed to dermatologist-recommended skincare products. As such, the brand has less than 30 products, the packaging is minimalist, there's no wishy-washy marketing and the prices are fair (given the ingredients).

Monday, August 10, 2015

After doing nail art (almost) every single day for a month, I've come to realize what I need to keep around for the sake of convenience, as well as the health of my nails. Kudos to all the manicurists and nail artists out there who create beautiful designs for tons of clients per day. I can barely do one manicure a day for myself.

LAZY NAIL ART

The Body Shop Nail Pen* ($6) - 90% of my nail art is created by making making circles (and blobs) with a dotting tool. $6 is a little much for a tool that makes dots. Some good substitutes are (1) Essence* also has a dotting tool for ~$2 which does exactly the same thing and (2) a toothpick, pencil nub, or back of a paint brush work just fine as well.

PROTECT YOUR NATURAL NAILS

Nail HQ Growth* ($9.99) - Without a doubt, applying and removing polish every day is not great for the health of your nails. To maintain the natural strength of my nails and prevent yellowing, I applied Nail HQ Growth with Biotin, Calcium, Vitamin A and Vitamin D to condition and strengthen my nails.

WHEN YOU'RE IN A RUSH

Seche Vite Top Coat* ($8.95) - All hail the Seche Vite. If you want your mani to be ultra shiny and dry super quick, Seche Vite is the way to go.

Essence Nail Art Express Drying Drops* ($2.99) - makes for speedy nail art that won't get ruined by bedsheets or the need to go to the washroom while your nails are drying. FOR A FRACTION OF THE PRICE OF ANYTHING ELSE.

TOO LAZY USE POLISH REMOVER

NYC New York Color Strip Me Off Base Coat* ($1.99) - The worst thing about nail polish is having to remove it. The Strip Me Off Base Coat is basically a Godsend if you never want to purchase nail polish remover or acetone or cotton pads again. It smells exactly like glue and all you have to do is apply it and let it dry before putting polish on top. When you're ready to get rid of your mani, you can peel of your polish with ease.

TO GET THE GLITTER OFF

Quo 100% Acetone ($3-4) - If you're not using the Strip Me Off Base Coat, glitter polishes are a pain and a half to remove. It's necessary to bring out the big guns, which happens to be 100% pure acetone. I wouldn't recommend using it on the regular as it dries out your nails (and the skin around them). For hard to remove polishes (i.e. glitter, Gels), it's the only real solution.

TO MAKE YOUR NATURAL NAILS NICE

Sephora Nail Buffer ($10 for 3) - After doing a gazillion nail art designs, my nails needed a break. They looked a little rugged from the whole experience, so I used the Nail Buffer to schluff off the ugly yellow hue on the top layer of my nails and shined them to perfection.

Friday, August 7, 2015

At the CBB Meetup (see THAT haul HERE), Rae of theNotice revealed that she was my Santa and handed me my gift! My wish list had (1) dry shampoo (2) travel minis and Rae got me exactly what I wanted.

Klorane Dry Shampoo with Nettle

Spoiler alert: this stuff is AMAZING. I'm on day 4 of not washing my hair and it still looks (and smells) like a perfect hair day! I read Jenn of A Beautiful Zen's 7-day test and also hung out with her on one of the days she was doing it. If the Klorane Dry Shampoo can prevent your hair from looking dirty for 7 days, it's basically magic in a spray can!

Bumble and Bumble Tonic Lotion

I had never heard of this product before nor have I ever tried anything from Bumble and Bumble but upon Sephora-ing it, I learned that the Tonic Lotion a detangling and styling primer that conditions hair and soothes the scalp. Rae included a little note, which said that this was one of her favourites. I haven't tried it yet but Rae has flawless hair, so here's to hoping that it works out for me!

L'Occitane Iris Bleu & Iris Blanc Hand Creme

I already own the L'Occitane Rose Hand Creme, so I'm bound to enjoy this mini.

THANKS A BUNCH RAE!

Did you participate in Christmas in July? What did you get?

The Canadian Beauty Bloggers network is a group of over 200 Canadian beauty blogs. If you want to take part in a beauty blogger Secret Santa like this one, be sure to join the network at beautybloggers.ca

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Finding the perfect nude lipstick and nail polish is one of the hardest tasks. Beauty brands seem to never have a shade that's just right for me. This fall, Essence has launched four I Love Trends Nail Polish - The Nudes ($2.49 each) and three Longlasting Lipstick Nudes ($3.49 each). In efforts to find the right nude for me, I tried EVERYTHING.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

"Be Bold. Be Unexpected. Be You", says Make Up For Ever's latest campaign. The message is clear - celebrate your individuality and embrace the freedom to express yourself however you choose. Makeup always about concealing a pimple or making your cheekbones look sculpted. For me, it's oftentimes about trying something based on a mood or expressing a side of me that I don't usually show.

The two faces of the campaign are Jamie Chung (throwback to The Real World: San Diego), actress and blogger and Andreja Pejic, the first transgender model to represent a major cosmetics company. Each curated their own Artist Palette to create their signature look with 4 of the almost 200 shades of the Artist Shadow line. Each palette retails for $56 and is available as of July 19th.

Monday, August 3, 2015

A 31-day Nail Art Challenge is a bit much for me, so I thought I'd commit to at least 15 out of the 31 days, perhaps just the easy ones or ones that interest me (UPDATE: I guess I did all of them...!).

All in all, this took a lot of thinking, googling, and dexterity. I don't think I'll be doing another month-long challenge for a while (my nails would hate me) but it was a great way to step out of my dotting-tool-only nail art box.

Which one's your fave? Would you like to see any of these designs step-by-step (they're all fairly easy!)?

Press samples featured. I linked all the polishes to their original swatches :)

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